6 hours Ago By Devika Desai
Calgary police have charged the CEO of Canada’s cricket body, alongside one other individual, with embezzlement, during his time as president of a Calgary cricket league In a news release shared Wednesday, police say they have charged Salman Khan Shahzad, 46, and Syed Wajahat Ali, 45, with one count each of fraud over $5,000 from the Calgary and District Cricket League during their time as president and treasurer of the league. The investigation began in 2017 after the league’s then-newly appointed president reported financial fraud to the police after an internal review of the league’s accounts found several discrepancies and concerns. The police launched an investigation and found that between January 2014 and December 2016, more than $200,000 had been misappropriated from the league.
Khan left his position at the league in 2016 after he was appointed as president of the Alberta Cricket Association. Currently he serves as CEO of Cricket Canada, a position to which he was appointed in January 2025. Postmedia has reached out to Cricket Canada to ask if the organization was aware of an investigation prior to Khan’s appointment and has not heard back in time for publication.
Shabhaz Saadat, a member of the board of directors for the league and president of the Predators Cricket club says the league had informed the organization of the investigation last year. Khan confirmed that the organization had heard from the league earlier in 2024 and had disclosed that an investigation was ongoing in writing to the cricket body when he was first approached for the position in December of last year. According to police, the funds were misappropriated via cheque payments made to businesses and contractors which Khan and Ali, or their immediate family members, had connections to.
Payments were made for repairs or upgrades to the league’s property. The work, the release adds, was never completed or performed to a substandard quality using inferior products. The costs for the work were “highly inflated,” the release adds.
Khan refuted the allegations on a Facebook post and in an interview with Postmedia, alleging that the police made little to no efforts to hear his side of the story before placing the charges against him. “Police never approached me during the seven years, except during the last year,” he told Postmedia, adding that he had approached them multiple times in the past years to ask about the investigation. “They said it’s in process,” he said of the response from police.
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